Venom (Flash Thompson)
After taking the symbiote from Mac Gargan, the government decided they would repurpose the symbiote for government missions. However the suit was unstable and its host, Flash Thompson, went rouge and became an Avenger and a Thunderbolt. Pre Venom life military career Eugene "Flash" Thompson was a former classmate of Peter Parker. Flash grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. He lived only a few blocks from Peter's house. He lived with his father Harrison Thompson, a police officer in the New York City Police Department, his mother Rosie Thompson and his little sister Jesse. Flash was physically abused by his alcoholic father, leading to Flash's own violent, bullying nature. Eugene "Flash" Thompson was a classmate of Peter Parker at Midtown High School, where he bullied him daily. Flash was Midtown High's star quarterback, where his speed on the football field earned him the lifelong nickname "Flash". This gained him popularity and respect, but he to still remained jealous of Peter's book smarts. Ironically, Flash became an ardent supporter of Spider-Man, despite popular opinion against him. When Peter shows up at school and has Flash Thompson waiting to fight him as he hangs around Liz Allan too much to his liking. As Peter exits school, he sees the robot and begins to run. Flash, thinking he's running away from a fight. Peter goes to school, and has heard enough from Flash and attacks him but is seen by the principal Mr. Davis and gets in trouble. Flash does the honorable thing and lets Mr. Davis know what really happened. Flash graduated from high school and enrolled at Empire State University on an athletic scholarship, becoming once more a classmate to Peter Parker. Flash begins his time at Empire State University, much to his annoyance so does Peter .Even though at first he continued his rivalry with Peter, turning his new classmates Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy against him, eventually, they became close friends. Military Career By the time Flash left college to join the army, he and Peter parted as friends. During his tour of duty, Flash was stationed in Southeast Asia, where he stumbled across a hidden temple whose residents-notably the beautiful Sha Shan nursed a wounded Flash back to health; however, after American forces mistakenly shelled the temple despite Flash's efforts to protect it, Flash left the army to return to America, where temple survivors who mistakenly blamed him for the tragedy made attempts on his life. With the aid of Spider-Man, Flash lived to convince the temple survivors of his innocence, and was briefly reunited with Sha Shan. Later, Sha Shan returned to the United States as Sister Sun, the reluctant bride of cult leader Brother Power, himself a pawn of the evil Man-Beast. Sha Shan ultimately turned on Korba, and the Man-Beast was thwarted through the combined efforts of Spider-Man, Razorback and Flash. Korba having died in the battle, Sha Shan became Flash's lover and lived with him for some time. At one point he was framed as being the Hobgoblin. After a failed marriage with Sha-Shan, Flash briefly dated Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat, not knowing that she was dating him in order to make Spider-Man (who at the time was married with Mary Jane Watson) jealous but when she started to show real feelings to him, he broke off the relationship once he found out about Felicia's life as the Black Cat. Flash returned to the battlefield in the war in Iraq, and lost his legs after saving his partner from enemy forces.He returned to the United States and started dating Betty Brant New Venom Flash became the new Venom when he was enlisted as a part of Project Rebirth 2.0. Flash was bonded with the symbiote, recently acquired by the U.S. government after Mac Gargan arrest after the Seige of . While bonded, Flash was able to reproduce his legs and had powers comparable to Spider-Man. Thompson was sent to the Eastern European country Nrosvekistan to recover Dr. Ekmecic, a specialist in developing weapons made from Arctic Vibranium. During his mission, he encountered the new Jack O' Lantern, who was also trying to recover Dr. Ekmecic for his boss, the new Crime-Master. Neither was able to take Ekmecic alive but the encounter made Venom and Jack O'Lantern long-time enemies. He was later sent to the Savage Land to destroy Crime-Master's Antarctic Vibranium shipment. After a confrontation with Kraven the Hinter, Flash was separated from the symbiote. which lead Crime-Master learned Venom's identity. However, the symbiote returned to Flash much to his surprise, assuring him that it won't abandon him and reminding him that they still have a mission to complete. Eventually, Venom took control of the helicopter containing the vibranium shipment, but he was forced to deliver it to Crime-Master when he used his knowledge of Venom's identity to hold Betty Brant, his long-time girlfriend, hostage. In return, Crime-Master told Venom where Betty was being kept, but Spider-Man, who was also trying to save Betty, mistook him for the enemy and the old foes fought. After their brief battle, they continued their search for Betty together, but as soon as Venom arrived at the warehouse where Betty was being kept, it blew up. Spidey left the destruction with Betty. Returning to Project Rebirth headquarters, he lied to his superior about Crime-Master discovering his identity to a moment when he lost control of the symbiote so that they wouldn't take it away from him. Back home, Flash learned that his father had cirrhosis of the liver and did not have much time to live. Spider Island All of Manhattan later succumbed to a virus that gave New Yorkers spider-powers. Project Rebirth dispatched Venom to stop Spider-King from breaching the quarantine and infecting others. After defeating him and bringing Spider-King to headquarters, Venom was sent to infiltrate their enemies' headquarters. There, he learned that Anti-Venom was capable of curing infected New Yorkers and took him to Horizan Labs to synthesize a cure. Later on, Flash was able to visit his father in the hospital right before he passed away. Back in action, Venom tried to kill the Queen, the one responsible for the spider-power infestation, with help from Steve Rogers. Venom stabbed the Queen with Rogers' shield, but she mutated to a giant spider. Other heroes came to battle the Queen, but it was Kaine who struck the killing blow while Spider-Man distributed the cure around the city with the help of Doctor Octopus' octobots. Venom battles the Hijacker and then kills him for running over a woman and child. Rouge Venom Jack gave Flash instructions to enter a casino called The Devil's Den, where the Venom symbiote would do the rest. Totally controlled by his instincts, Venom broke into a secret lab in the casino, where the Toxin Symbiote is contained. Venom tried to kill it, but O' Lantern put it in a container and flew away with it. Circle of Four Flash broke up with Betty so that she could be safe and started drinking again. Eventually, Red Hulk tracked Flash all the way to Las Vegas so that he could take the symbiote and bring him in for court-martial. In the midst of their fight, Blackheart created a portal that brought Hell to Earth, but Johnny Blaze stopped it from spreading past Las Vegas. Venom and Red Hulk fought alongside X-23 and the new Ghost Rider to defeat Blackheart. Along the way they fought their Antitheses,polar opposites of themselves created with a magic mirror, and died while trying to defeat them. Their dark pasts brought them to Hell, where Mephisto offered to return them to Earth if they agreed to help him at a later date. The four agreed and challenged Blackheart again. But this time, Venom and Ghost Rider surrendered their powers to Red Hulk, giving him the power to defeat Blackheart. Shortly after, Captain America and the Secret Avengers arrived to bring Venom in, but his heroic deeds convinced Cap to give him a chance and he welcomed him onto the team. Secret Avenger Still, Rogers wanted Thompson to be storing at the Lighthouse station and use the symbiote in short periods of time, joining the Secret Avengers along with the original Human Torch. But Hawkeye's skepticism didn't allow Venom to take part in the team's new mission. Venom participated in the mission regardless and played a pivotal role in a later mission, eventually earning Hawkeye's trust. Over time, a secret relationship developed between him and fellow teammate Valkarie.His tenure with the Secret Avengers brought him into conflict with the homicidal Carnage when he tried to take over the town of Doverton, Colorado. Savage Six When Crime-Master was gathering other four villains to form a team called the Savage Six, Venom sneaked in to Crime-Master's HQ and tries to kill him. Eddie Brock interfered trying to kill Thompson, which ruined Flash's plan. Before escaping from the five villains, Master stated that he will kill Flash's loved ones. Eddie Brock was knocked out during battle and was forced by Crime-Master to become the new Toxin and complete the Savage Six. Flash started searching for Betty, and found her talking with Jack O' Lantern, he protected her from him, Megatak and Toxin. Knowing that there could be any way for her to trust him, Venom revealed his identity to Betty. The Savage Six then attacked Flash and Betty at the home of her parents. Flash then engaged in his last fight with the Savage Six, resulting in the deaths of Death Adder and Toxin, who Venom attempted to save. He then witnessed Crime Master reveal his identity to Betty and Venom as Betty's brother and became shocked when Betty shot and killed him. Later fought Jack O' Lantern and brought him to the Raft Minimum Carnage After Carnage escaped custody, Venom followed the serial killer to a NASA research center, where the villain used a interdimensional transport called Prometheus Pit with the help of beings from the Microverse to be transported there. The Scarlet Spider, who also was following Carnage's steps, joined Venom in the search for Kasady, and they were transported to the Microverse by the Prometheus Pit. Both are separated once they passed through the Pit, Venom was found by the Enigma Force, who needed Venom's help to oppose Marquis Radu, the leader of Carnage's allies, and get Carnage out of the Microverse, because his symbiote (as well as Venom's) was corrupting the environment. They were attacked and subdued by Marquis Radu's forces. Venom was brought to Marquis Radu's base along Carnage, in order to replicate their symbiotes and create an army which could make him control the Microverse. But Carnage managed to take control over the symbiote army and used it to escape to the regular universe, where he was finally defeated by the combined efforts of Venom and Scarlet Spider, and a special weapon given to them by the Enigma Force. After being stung by the Scarlet Spider, Cletus cured his wounds, but was left in a catatonic state, meaning that the symbiote was now in full control of his body, although it put in custody once more and sedated. Moving to Philadelphia After facing the U-Foes, Flash bid farewell to New York and moved to Philadelphia, unbeknownst to him that Eddie Brock had survived the flames and was tracking him down. Flash received a job as an assistant gym coach to West Philadelphia High School and also became "the Spider-Man of Philly". When trying to capture a victim of one of Vector's experiments with Alien-machine hybrids, Venom was confronted by Toxin, who killed the hybrid. Using a sedative he was saving for his own symbiote, Flash managed to incapacitate Brock, who left the scene vowing a new encounter soon. Toxin tracked down Flash to the high school, wanting to confront him, but the creature Toxin killed managed to spawn and infect new people, people who were now looking for both Toxin and Venom, their new natural enemies. In order to save innocent lives, Flash convinced Brock to temporarily team-up and defeat the monsters, who were ultimately killed. Realizing he was doing good with Venom, Brock offered Flash a deal, he would let him live as long as he had control over the symbiote. Dealing with the Mania situation In order to save Andi Benton, one of his students, from being killed by his Nemesis, Jack O'Lantern, Flash accidentally gave her a portion of his symbiote, when he was trying to filter the air of the flames so that Andi wouldn't die. The symbiote portion mysteriously bonded with Andi faster than it would've bonded with any other host turning her into Mania. While discussing with Damion Hellstorm about the Hell marks, he learned he no longer had the mark that he received during the Circle of Four event. Soon afterwards he discovers that the Symbiote sent the mark (and presumably the demon with it) and a clone symbiote which he had absorbed some time ago and sent it out, causing it to reform the Clone, albeit with demonic powers. After defeating Crossbones with Mania, Venom is now going to be training his new "sidekick".